"Dave Duncan - Tales of King's Blades 5 - The Jaguar Knights" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

obscure private Blade, whom he had not seen for years, who was not even a member of his Guard.

I know how you weep for him,Wolf did not say,since you’ve kept him locked him up on Whinmoor all
these years.“Your Majesty is kind. Injured by whom?” Blades did not meet with accidents.

The uninvited query made the King spin around and glare. “That remains to be discovered. Three nights
ago, Quondam was attacked by persons unknown. Sir Fell and Sir Mandeville are slain.”

Wolf gaped, shocked into silence. Lynx wounded, two other Blades dead—there should be a dozen
corpses lying around as evidence, so why was the criminals’ identity in doubt? AndQuondam?
Quondam, on Whinmoor, was absolutely impregnable, a fortress that had never been taken by storm or
siege. If this was not a bizarre joke, it must be the start of an invasion. Or armed rebellion.The emergency
snapped into focus.

Moreover, the King wasscared.Wolf’s studied opinion, most people could lie to ears, but not to eyes. If
you knew how to look, you could learn a man’s feelings more truly from the way he held his chin and
moved his eyes than you ever could from his words. All really good swordsmen had some of this skill,
even if they were unaware that they were reacting to the twitch of an eyelid flagging a lunge before their
op-ponent’s foot began to move; it was why Ironhall discouraged dueling masks during training. Grand
Inquisitor were unreadable, of course, but the Lord Chancellor was usually fairly legible and Athelgar
 Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html




displayed his feelings like heraldic banners. With shoulders hunched, wrists crossed low, and teeth set, he
was proclaiming worry in fanfares. Sparrow was chewing his lip. Even Vicious was not standing with his
hands confi-dently behind his back as usual, but looking rather as if he were poised to leap to his ward’s
defense. If this tale was a hoax, the King and his most senior advisors were not in on it.

6



THE J A GU AR KNIGHTS

P

“A sizable force,” Athelgar said. “Gone already. Their tracks led to the beach.”

“Raiders, sire? Baels?”

“Not Baels!” snapped the royal Bael. “These were definitely not Baels!”

Wolf bowed and waited to hear why the King was so sure and who else could have pulled off such a
feat.

The King did not explain. “Baron Dupend was seriously wounded. At least a score of his men were
killed, and Grand Master thinks about as many of the attackers.The Baroness was abducted.” He
paused to stare out the window. “That appears to have been the sole motive for the as-sault—to kidnap